The Hub was a larger city than both Junktown and Shady Sands combined. You could drop the Vault in there, and you probably would not notice. But the people of the Hub had no life, and it was a desolate place just the same.

The Hub is the primary trading center of New California, organizing caravans headed to Shady Sands, Junktown, Boneyard, Necropolis, and other communities in the region. Since 2162, its power expanded considerably. By 2281, it remains the largest trading center in the wastelands, fueled by the fact that people will trade for just about anything: chems, tires, guns, bullets, food, brahmin, scraps of metal, even dirt. The large community of traders, barterers, gamblers, and other interesting scum passing through ensures that there is always something interesting going on.[1]

The Hub was founded in 2093 by a man named Angus, who set up camp around a filthy oasis in the desert, located in the remains of and an old town left (relatively) untouched by the Great War, and proceeded to begin trading with other settlements.[2]

In 2096, a man called Harold rose to the level of a caravan boss in the Hub.[3] His caravans suffered occasional attacks in the wastes, but Harold's caravan outfit survived and prospered... until the mutant attacks begin to pick up a few years later. Increasing mutant attacks on Harold's caravans so infuriated Harold that, in May 2102, he financed an adventuring party to find out where the mutants were coming from. Consulting with a scientist and doctor at the Hub, a man by the name of Richard Grey, the two of them decide to join forces. They, along with two others, sought out the source of mutants that had been attacking civilians in the area. Their travels led them to the Mariposa Military Base, where, after stiff resistance from robots, everyone was separated, and both Richard Grey and Harold were exposed to the FEV vats. A few months later, Harold was found by traders and taken back to the Hub. But he wasn't human anymore - he was transforming into a strange ghoul-like mutant. His former caravan partners and employees, horrified by his condition, abandoned him without even two bottle caps to rub together. However, he soon became the leader of the Hub's small ghoul population.[4]

In 2120, Angus established himself as the governor of the growing Hub.[5] Five years later, in 2125 the raider tribe known as the Vipers attempted to raid the Hub, but despite having a numerical advantage, they were fended off by a coordinated defense led by Angus, and the defeated raiders retreated to the north. In the winter of the same year, however, Angus was suddenly murdered by an unknown assailant, leading to widespread chaos erupting in the Hub.[6] Angus' death led to the Great Merchant Wars in 2126, which started when a band of merchants seized the water tower in the Hub. They demanded anyone wanting water must pay a toll. The war lasted for two years. The Water Merchants sealed up the town, but were outnumbered. In 2128, Roy Greene (Justin Greene's grandfather) made peace and negotiated a settlement. The Hub's Central Council was formed, composed of two representatives from each of the Hub caravan companies. With six members, votes required at least four votes to pass. A long period of indecisiveness and meetings maintain the status quo in the Hub.[7][8]

Of course, the wars weren't the only problem. In 2131, the Master began ordering his super mutants to gather human stock from Hub caravans. For many years, the caravan disappearances were blamed on monsters in the desert, and even when the abductions begin to occur on Hub caravans, the blame was put on deathclaws and other groups. However, humans proved to be worse than monsters. The Hub Underground was formed by a man called Decker in 2140, who quickly started pulling the strings in the town.[9] In 2150, the newly reformed Vipers clashed with the Brotherhood of Steel.[6] The battles intensified in subsequent years, culminating in the death of High Elder Maxson II in 2155. John Maxson's father expected the raiders to break formation and flee when faced with Brotherhood warriors clad in powered armor, but did not account for their religious ferocity. A poisoned arrow nicked him when his helmet was off, and he died within hours.[10] John Maxson ascended to the post of High Elder and Rhombus became Head of the Paladins, conducting a campaign of extermination against the Vipers. The Paladins tracked down and wiped out almost all of their members within the span of a month. A handful of Vipers were able to flee north and east into the mountain range; While small groups continued to exist and raid in New California, they never regained their full power.[6]

During the campaign, the Brotherhood sent a few scouts and emissaries to the Hub to track down Vipers members, and from these beginnings, the Hub and the Brotherhood began full trade relations. Caravans had delivered to the Brotherhood before, but not long after the destruction of the Vipers, caravan trains ran directly from the Hub to the Brotherhood on a regular basis.[6] While the situation remained peaceful and prosperous, issues would develop between the Hub and the Brotherhood from time to time. In the late 2150s, the Water Merchants of the Hub attempted to barter a large quantity of water for a weapons stockpile. Although the Brotherhood turned down the offer, the merchants attempted to take the weapons regardless. The thieves were caught, but thankfully for the Hub, the Brotherhood Elders voted down a retaliatory expedition.[11]

The coming of 2162 and defeat of the Master only served to further establish the Hub as a major influence in the region. Despite initial misgivings about the alliance between Junktown and Shady Sands, the trading city eventually became a founding member of the New California Republic in 2189 and one of the key influences on its development.[12] In 2189 Hub became on of the five founding states within the NCR with representatives (or "governors")[13] from it having a major say in the affairs of the fledgling republic.[14]

Its influence grew further with the Brotherhood War. When the Republic's gold reserves were destroyed by Brotherhood raids to the point where new gold coins could not be minted and paper money could not be properly backed with gold. NCR citizens panicked and rushed to reclaim the listed face value of currency from NCR's remaining gold reserves. Since the NCR was unable to realize these withdrawals, particularly towards the frontier, faith in their currency considerably dropped. To protect against actual economic collapse, the NCR government abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, not payable in specie.[15] Since then many wastelanders lost faith in it as a medium of worth, both as a result of it not being backed by anything but the government's word and the inevitable inflation.[16] In response to the loss of faith, merchant consortiums of the Hub re-established their own currency, the veritable bottle cap, backing it with water (exchanging a standardized measure of water for caps).[17][18]

Fundamentally, the entrance of the Hub serves as both a landing and a jumping-off point for the countless caravans that crisscross the wastes. At any time, several caravans will be loading or offloading goods, typically accompanied by a retinue of heavily-armed mercenary guards. Apart from the staging areas for the caravans, much of this outskirts area is given over to agriculture, under the protection of the Hub Police.

The busiest section of the Hub, downtown is second only to the entrance in terms of foot traffic, the entrance only busier due to caravans. Downtown is host to most of the city services, including the Hub Police station and library, as well as a number of commercial interests: both the Far Go Traders and Crimson Caravan hold offices in Downtown, as does the Friendly Lending Company and a few arms merchants. One colorful character in Downtown is Bob Frazier, proprietor of a lucrative iguana-on-a-stick stand. The Maltese Falcon, the local bar and flop house, rounds out the area. The occasional homeless or drifter, such as Irwin, can also often be found here.

The enigmatic section of town, Old Town is a combination residential and commercial district. Several important characters, including Harold and Loxley can be found in Old Town, along with a handful of arms merchants and miscellaneous Hub residents. Despite its unassuming appearance, however, a great deal of danger can be found in Old Town by the adventurous or unwary, and several miscellaneous quests have their roots here.

One of the most vital sections of the Hub, yet home to one of the most unscrupulous commercial entities in California, the Water Merchants section of town is home to the titular Water Merchants, a trading group specializing in the sale of portable water to various settlements in the wasteland. As "clean" water is a precious commodity, the Water Merchants section of town is the site of great wealth, both in coin and in water, and is therefore well-guarded. Any person wishing to do business with the Water Merchants must come to this section of the Hub. There is also a hospital run by the Children of the Cathedral in this area.

The Heights is the upper-class residential area of the Hub, and is home to Daren Hightower, a local and very wealthy merchant. That Hightower keeps considerable valuables in his mansion is an open secret, any merchant as rich as Hightower certainly has items of value worth taking. Hightower, however, has not made his money through foolish risk-taking, so the Heights are often patrolled by paid mercenary guards. Any visitors without a good reason - or at least a good story – for being in the area are promptly ushered out, usually at gunpoint.

The Hub Police attempt to maintain law and order in town, however, their attempts are coming under increasing pressure from both the merchants and the Hub Underground.

Merchants companies, principally the Crimson Caravan, Far Go Traders, and the Water Merchants all seek to maximize profits, which sometimes runs at odds with the law. Additionally, the merchants constantly find themselves the target of raids or extortion attempts.

The Underground, a criminal element headed by Decker, seeks to control the Hub and its massive trading profits.

The Thieves' Circle, run by Loxley, does not necessarily want to control the Hub as such, but nevertheless is at odds with all three of the other factions by the simple virtue of endeavoring to steal what they have.

As of the arrival of the Vault Dweller, the Underground is known to have been destroyed by him (with the help of the Hub Police or not), since the Hub is still here in both 2241 and 2281.

Although the Official Survival Guide gives the name of the old city Hub was founded upon as Barstow, its actual location corresponds closely with the present-day Edwards AFB, whereas the Necropolis lies where Barstow would be. This is most likely due to the fact that the developers moved the locations around to spread them out across the map.

References

↑Fallout Official Survival Guide p.75: "The Hub is an enormous trading center and settlement established in an old town relatively untouched by the war. Caravans are organized here, carrying goods to LA, Junktown, Shady Sands, and elsewhere. Numerous adventures can be had here."

↑Fallout Bible 0: "2093 The Hub is founded by a man named Angus, who sets up camp around a filthy oasis in the desert, and he proceeds to begin trading with other settlements."

↑Fallout Bible 0: "2096 Harold rises to the level of a caravan boss in the Hub. His caravans suffer occasional attacks in the wastes, but Harold's caravan outfit survives and prospers... until the mutant attacks begin to pick up a few years later."

↑Fallout Bible 0: "2102 May 22 Increasing mutant attacks on Harold's caravans cause Harold to get so pissed he finances one of the first adventuring parties of Fallout to try and find out where these dagnab mutants are coming from. Consulting with a scientist and doctor at the Hub, a man by the name of Grey, the two of them decide to join forces.""2102 June 23 Richard Grey's Expedition [including Harold] finds the Mariposa Military Base and the Expedition is scattered and defeated by mutants at the base. Grey is knocked into one of the vats of FEV by a robotic arm, and Harold is knocked unconscious, only to awaken later out in the wasteland.""2102 June 27 Harold, already mutating, is found by traders and taken back to the Hub. His former caravan partners and employees, horrified by his condition, abandon him and he is soon left without even two bottlecaps to rub together."

↑ 6.06.16.26.3Fallout Bible 6: "Defeat at the Hub in 2125: Their failed attempt to raid the Hub during the Hub's formative years, stopped almost solely by Angus, the founder of the Hub. Angus' defense caused the Vipers to retreat north, and they roamed the wastes for many, many years, occasionally attacking caravans and small settlements. Around the early 2150s, however, the Vipers had grown to their former strength from captured slaves and caravan drivers and had begun to establish a power base in the badlands to the North of the Hub (and south of the Lost Hills Bunker). Driven by a religious frenzy (and the need to provide for their much larger numbers of soldiers and disciples), they began raiding more frequently than before, attracting the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood sent out a few squads of scouts to track the raiders down - it was more of a training exercise conducted by John Maxson's father, as the Brotherhood was convinced that small detachment of troops in Power Armor would be sufficient to deal with a group of raiders, no matter how large.Near Extermination by the Brotherhood of Steel in 2155: One Brotherhood squad found the Vipers, and during the firefight, John Maxson's father (who was leading the squad) was killed with a poisoned arrow. The response from the Brotherhood was immediate. The Paladins, now led by Rhombus, began a full scale campaign against the Vipers, tracking them down and wiping out almost all of their members within the span of a month. A handful of Vipers were able to flee north and east into the mountain range, but they were never heard from again.During the campaign, the Brotherhood sent a few scouts and emissaries to the Hub to track down Vipers members, and from these beginnings, the Hub and the Brotherhood began full trade relations (caravans had delivered to the Brotherhood before, but not long after the destruction of the Vipers, caravan trains ran directly from the Hub to the Brotherhood on a regular basis). So some good did come out of the Vipers' presence in the wastes, for what it's worth."

↑Fallout Bible 0: "2126-2128 The Great Merchant Wars are fought, the Water Merchants seal up the town, but are outnumbered. A man named Roy Greene (Justin Greene's grandfather) makes the peace and negotiates a settlement. The Hub's Central Council is formed, composed of two representatives from each of the Hub caravan companies. A long period of indecisiveness and meetings maintain the status quo in the Hub."

↑The Vault Dweller: "{174}{}{The City Council.}"Beth: "{227}{}{There are six representatives two from each of the main merchant groups. Everything needs at least four votes to be passed. They can never agree on anything.}"(HBETH.MSG)

↑Fallout Bible 0: "2155 John Maxson's father dies in a raid by the Vipers. Expecting the raiders to break and run, Maxson doesn't take into account the religious ferocity of the Vipers (or their poisoned weapons), and when a single arrow nicks him with his helmet off, he dies within hours. John Maxson takes up the role of Elder, and Rhombus becomes the new head of the Paladins."

↑The Vault Dweller: "{1015}{}{Merchants}"John Maxson: "{1115}{Gen_67}{You want to hear about the Water Merchants. Hehehe, well you can't trust them. A few years ago, they offered us Water for a huge stockpile of weapons. We told them no, and you know what they did? Sent in thieves to steal the weapons! We caught 'em, but the Elders voted down going to the Hub to teach the merchants a lesson.}"(MAXSON.MSG)

↑Fallout Bible 5: "14. One thing - what's happened to Junktown? Was it just too little to be it's own state? Or maybe it has managed to survive as an independent enclave inside NCR, a hive of scum and villainy, so to speak. And what kind of folks would live in Glow? After all, that place must still, well, glow, at least somewhat. Ghouls?""Junktown became part of NCR as part of the state of Shady, and it was one of the first provisional states, considering it was one of the first (and most trustworthy) of the Shady Sands trading partners during its early formation. Its alliance with Shady Sands did cause some alarm from the caravans in the Hub, but it didn't hurt the Hub communities any... and the Hub eventually became part of NCR as well.""As for the Glow (or the state of Dayglow), most of the state is actually north and west of the glow, but they are still able to see the Glow from their borders. A number of ghouls are rumored to live there now, as part of the Great Migration from Necropolis - once the ghouls learned of West Tek, they were eager to see if they could scavenge technology from the abandoned center. Some ghouls formed partnerships with scavenging companies from New Adytum and the Hub and have built quite a profitable corporation from their salvage efforts. At least one super mutant, a refugee from the Cathedral, was also rumored to be working with the ghouls and humans in Dayglow."

↑Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.41: "New California RepublicThe New California Republic was born from the remnants of the survivors of Vault 15 and the small walled community they founded, Shady Sands. Under the leadership of Aradesh, and with the assistance of the Vault Dweller (who saved Tandi, Aradesh's daughter and a future president of the NCR), the community prospered. Trade routes with other settlements allowed cultural exchange, and a movement to form a national entity gradually took root and won popular acceptance. In 2186, the town of Shady Sands changed its name to "New California Republic" and formed a trial council government to draft a constitution. Four more settlements joined the council, and in 2189 the NCR was voted into existence as a sprawling federation of five states: Shady Sands, Los Angeles, Maxson, Hub, and Dayglow.By post-apocalyptic standards, the NCR is a paragon of economic success and good ethical character: political enfranchisement, rule of law, a reasonable degree of physical security, and a standard of living better than mere subsistence are daily realities for it's 700,000+ citizens. Currently, the NCR in a state of transition, with rapid economic growth and a sea change in political leadership endangering its grand humanitarian ideals. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Mojave, where the occupation of Hoover Dam has improved access to electricity and water, but at the cost of straining its budget and embroiling its armed forces in a morally corrosive imperialist project.The NCR government's aim is to annex New Vegas as the republic's sixth state. While it already controls Hoover Dam, its treaty with Mr. House and the three families compels it to allot one-fifth of the dam's electrical and water production to local use free of charge. Adding injury to insult, the NCR is locked into protecting New Vegas from invasion by Caesar's legion even as it receives not one cap in tax revenue from the Strip's highly lucrative resort operations. NCR citizens in the Mojave have largely come here for economic reasons, whether as paid citizen soldiers or as prospectors and fortune-seekers."(Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide faction profiles)

↑"And this is discussed in-game: BoS raided NCR's gold reserves until NCR could no longer generate gold coinage nor back their paper money. They abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, which is why its value is inflated over both caps and (especially) Legion coinage. (...) People in eastern NCR and the Mojave Wasteland lost faith in the NCR government's a) ability to back the listed value of paper money and b) stability overall. If you're living in Bakersfield, staring at a piece of paper that says "redeemable for value in gold" and you have no faith in the government's ability or willingness to do that -- or if you see that the government has changed the currency to say that it is not able to be exchanged for a backed good -- you may very well listen to the strong consortium of local merchants offering to exchange that paper note for currency backed by water." --J.E. Sawyer, src

↑"Traders from the Mojave travel the Short Loop into NCR, which means that they have to go through a few hundred miles of solid desert. Carrying enough water to travel from New Vegas to the Boneyard (or vice versa) would undercut cargo capacity significantly. Even the communities around the Mojave Wasteland (other than New Vegas itself) have water brought in and stored in local towers. Of course, the Colorado River is nearby as long as you don't mind walking through an active war zone." --J.E. Sawyer, src

↑"How does the Hub 'back' caps? Can you exchange a certain number of caps for a standard measure of water? Yes." J.E. Sawyer, src

↑"It happened during the BoS-NCR war. I believe Alice McLafferty mentions it, but I'm not positive. She doesn't detail the events in this much detail, but here they are:
The attacks caused NCR citizens (and others who held NCR currency) to panic, resulting in a rush to reclaim the listed face value of currency from NCR's gold reserves. Inability to do this at several locations (especially near the periphery of NCR territory where reserves were normally low) caused a loss of faith in NCR's ability to back their currency.
Though NCR eventually stopped the BoS attacks, they decided to protect against future problems by switching to fiat currency. While this meant that BoS could no longer attack a) reserves or b) the source of production (all NCR bills are made in the Boneyard), some people felt more uneasy about their money not having any "real" (backed) value. This loss of confidence increased with NCR inflation, an ever-looming spectre of fiat currency.
Because the Hub links NCR with the Mojave Wasteland and beyond, the merchants there grew frustrated with NCR's handling of the currency crisis. They conspired to re-introduce the bottle cap as a water-backed currency that could "bridge the gap" between NCR and Legion territory. In the time leading up to the re-introduction, they did the footwork to position themselves properly. If some old-timer had a chest full of caps, they didn't care (in fact, they thought that was great, since the old-timers would enthusiastically embrace the return of the cap), but they did seek to control or destroy production facilities and truly large volumes of caps (e.g. Typhon's treasure) whenever possible." --J.E. Sawyer, src

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